[0:00] Oh, >> this conference will now be recorded.

[0:05] » This conference will be recorded.

[0:10] » All righty. Well, let's uh call to order the zoning commission regular meeting

[0:16] for Wednesday, September 9th, 2026.

[0:22] You uh call the role, please. >> Okay. Mr. Fwell

[0:27] » here. Mr. King >> here. Mr. Pratt

[0:30] » here. >> Mr. Green

[0:31] » here. >> All right. Um, next we have the to uh

[0:37] approve the minutes of the July 8th, 2026

[0:41] meeting. We have any additions or corrections to

[0:45] those minutes? >> None.

[0:48] » All right. If not, we entertain a motion to approve.

[0:51] » I'll move to approve minutes from uh July.

[0:55] » I'll second. >> Okay. Call the RO, please.

[0:59] Okay, Mr. Sab. >> Yes,

[1:03] » Mr. King. >> Yes,

[1:05] » Mr. C. >> Yes,

[1:06] » Mr. K. >> Yes.

[1:09] All right. I see we have no old business on the agenda. So, we'll move right on

[1:14] to the new business. Uh, first we have a text amendment for article 8,

[1:20] supplemental regulations, section 803. You mind walking us through that, Daryl?

[1:25] Yes. This past spring, the Sain Township

[1:30] Zoning Department was made aware of the inaccuracy in section 8003 of the

[1:35] Savannah Township Zoning Resolution regulating agricultural uses.

[1:40] Specifically, per the Ohio Revised Code section 51921, [clears throat]

[1:45] townships in Ohio cannot regulate agricultural uses on any parcel not

[1:51] within the private subdivision regardless of the acreage size of

[1:55] parcel. Additionally, there is interest among

[1:58] some township residents to expand or modify the allowed farm livestock uses

[2:04] on parcels that are that are within the private subdivision.

[2:08] SP [cough] [clears throat] department is presenting

[2:11] two amendments to section 8003. One of them must be approved to align

[2:16] this section of the Spain and Township, sorry, the Spain and Township zoning

[2:22] resolution with section 521 2021 of the OC.

[2:28] Proposed amendment number one corrects the language of section 8003 to

[2:33] adequately meet the requirements of the OC. No additional regulations or

[2:38] allowances are added. No definitions are amended.

[2:45] and no new definitions added to the zoning.

[2:49] Post amendment two corrects the language of section 8003 to adequately meet the

[2:55] requirements of the OC plus refine subsection 803B on the livestock use

[3:02] permitted on competitive lots measuring 1.01 to 4.99 acres in size.

[3:09] Additionally, the definition of livestock is removed from article 19

[3:13] definitions of the zonal resolution and replaced with livestock and non

[3:19] livestock. Lucas County Plan Commission planning

[3:23] planning staff recommended approval of the staff report and at the August 26,

[3:28] 2026 hearing, the plan commission voted to recommend approval to the township of

[3:34] proposed amendment number two. zoning staff has no recommendations.

[3:44] » Okay. So, you've given us >> a little bit confusing.

[3:47] » Yeah. You you've given us what we currently have and then also the

[3:52] proposed U markup here to reflect those those changes. Um

[4:01] any any comment comments or questions from the the board members here?

[4:10] » And generally speaking, you don't get many calls from people in a platted

[4:13] subdivision that want chickens or livestock anyway, right?

[4:19] » You do. >> You do.

[4:22] » But this is still not allowing it. On the flip side of that, we get calls

[4:25] [clears throat] from people in the subdivision

[4:28] complaining about somebody. >> Exactly.

[4:31] » It's a double-edged sword. >> So, we do get calls.

[4:34] We just run both ways.

[4:41] » But long story short, we were out of compliance before anyways cuz we were

[4:45] » the Ohio strict. So per the OC, if it's not in a planted subdivision, we can't

[4:53] regulate how much li what livestock they have or how much regardless if they're

[4:57] on half an acre or 50 acres. >> And we were

[5:02] » Yeah.

[5:07] Okay. So if I'm in a subdivision on a halfacre lot, I can have as many

[5:14] chickens in my backyard as I want. or I cannot have those chickens. Okay.

[5:20] As long as it's platted. >> It's platted and I cannot. If it's

[5:24] platted, I cannot. >> And then HOAs would have their own rules

[5:28] also probably in most subdivisions. >> Yeah.

[5:36] » Uh any any comments or questions from the crowd? Please go to the podium.

[5:41] State your name, don't I? >> Yeah. Just name and address for the for

[5:46] the record there. >> My name is Yuri Aster. How my address is

[5:48] 2231 Centennial Road, Toledto, Ohio. I'm also the chairman for the board of

[5:53] zoning appeals for Sennsylvania Township.

[5:55] » Okay. >> So, a little bit of context of why we're

[5:58] here and what we're doing here. So, specifically, so Darl and I, as well as

[6:03] Oliver and then John Burell, legal counsel for us obviously, um have been

[6:08] looking at this carefully. So, we've had quite a few cases over the last year

[6:12] regarding chickens, mainly in areas that are platted. So, platted is not like you

[6:19] typically think of a subdivision. So, subdivision can be platted. All

[6:23] subdivisions are platted, but not all platteds are subdivisions.

[6:27] So, for example, like you t think of like um Deer Point or something like

[6:32] that would be a typical subdivision. Usually those are less than an acre,

[6:36] usually a half acre, quarter acre or something like that. Those are almost

[6:39] always platted because they have to be platted to be subdivided. What has

[6:43] became a problem is these larger spaces that are acres or like for example on

[6:49] Gradwell there's a a lady came in and she has 2 acres but it was platted back

[6:55] in 1950 something or something like that. I don't recall it was a long time

[6:59] ago. It wouldn't be your traditional subdivision. Looks nothing like a

[7:03] subdivision. She cannot have any chickens under the proposal. So, as we

[7:08] started digging into this a little bit deeper, we saw two issues. The first

[7:11] issue is what the First Amendment is addressing. So, in the state of Ohio,

[7:16] like Daryl said, you cannot regulate agriculture on anything that is not

[7:22] platted. So, if it's platted, you have as a

[7:27] township, it's called powers conferred to the township. We can regulate that.

[7:31] But if it's not platted, you cannot regulate that. So, we have to clean that

[7:36] up. So that's the first amendment. As we dug deeper into this and we started

[7:40] looking at this under the second amendment or the way the resolution is

[7:44] wrote now, if you look at it, um the rules are for 1 to four acres and this

[7:50] is where it gets a little confusing because it refers to not platted and

[7:54] it's like well you can't regulate that. But the intent was is you could only

[7:58] have one livestock animal per acre. Now, this is where this gets a little bit odd

[8:04] because that means that I could have one draft horse, which is a massive animal

[8:08] or a cow, for example. But I can't have two chickens. You could only have one

[8:13] chicken. It just doesn't make a lot of sense. So, we started talking to um the

[8:19] other township. So, I specifically reached out to Parisburg Township. Hey,

[8:22] what are you guys doing with your chicken rules? What are you doing with

[8:26] your livestock? um looked at a lot of different

[8:29] municipalities actually and townships and for the most part everybody's

[8:34] regulating them at six per acre is a reasonable amount of chickens. So that's

[8:40] what we included in this proposal and I got to give credit to my wife Amanda

[8:44] here. Um she's the one that actually came up with the definition of hooved

[8:48] and nonhooed animals. I would not have thought about that. But your hooked

[8:51] animals and you would know Mike or all your cows and your your donkeys, your

[8:57] you know what goats, horses, you know, all that sort of

[9:01] thing, right? Those are big animals generally speaking. They're noxious

[9:04] animals at times. I mean, you have to have some land, which makes sense to

[9:08] have one um farm animal per acre. Chickens, on the other hand, they're

[9:12] non-hooved. Rabbits are non-hooked. Under the current resolution, you can't

[9:16] even have a rabbit. Now, what this proposal still eliminates, to your point

[9:22] previously, is anything that's under an acre the township can regulate that's

[9:27] platted and it's you cannot have any livestock on it. So, your subdivision

[9:32] specifically like Deer Point or Farmbbrook or something like that, you

[9:36] can't do that. You don't have enough livestock or you don't have enough land

[9:39] out there to do that. In addition to your point too, Tom,

[9:43] HOA always supersedes our township rules. So you do the towns or the if a

[9:48] specific subdivision says hey you know I really don't want chickens they can have

[9:52] most of them have there like eagle um Eaglewood has HOA rules that says hey

[9:58] even if we could have chickens now it's in Sylvania we can't we we don't want

[10:02] chickens here so we think that we put together something um that is fair to

[10:07] everybody um that kind of meets both criteria that allows those people that

[10:12] has that little bit more rural area to have chickens. We also tightened up,

[10:16] you'll see in there, which Daryl really helped with this, but with the the

[10:20] setbacks, making sure that you have enough space, like for example, 50 foot

[10:24] setback from any dwelling or property line. Livestock can't be 5 foot. It

[10:29] can't be anywhere within 5 foot of the property line. Barns and stables have to

[10:33] be clean. Slaughtering, you can't do that, that sort of thing. So, we tried

[10:37] to really um look at everybody else's code and try to put in things that were

[10:41] going to be a problem. So obviously like you to prove it but that's your

[10:48] consideration. So any questions

[10:54] additional questions? >> Okay. Thank you very much for uh for

[11:00] that explanation. That that certainly helps.

[11:03] I I'll ask this for Daryl cuz he was involved with the uh what was John

[11:08] Bell's stance on like the legal side? I mean, if someone's horse runs over, they

[11:13] got to have more homeowners insurance, right? That doesn't put the township at

[11:17] any liability, does it? For >> um We didn't look at that specific

[11:23] issue, but no, I would see >> I would think it would go with the Yeah,

[11:27] it would go with the house or the farm. >> Same as if somebody's dog

[11:35] goes and damages someone else's property or bites their kid or that. Yeah, cuz I

[11:41] mean sadly dogs can be more annoying than most livestock. We did have a

[11:45] donkey once. So they when you have one >> once,

[11:50] » they're companion animals. One can be really noisy, but it actually was a

[11:54] better guard dog than a dog. [laughter] So I'm just saying we should tread

[11:59] lightly because some animals are when there when there is only one, you know,

[12:03] whether it be a cow or a horse, usually the goats, they all like to have two

[12:08] generally. But if you're 5 acres or more, it's not an issue, right? It's

[12:13] just for the one acre, you're allowed one.

[12:15] » Yeah. So, it's one per Yeah. >> So, if you had two acres, you would

[12:20] allow you'd [snorts] be allowed to have >> companion both animals.

[12:24] » Yeah. I think you guys did a good job. It's sized right in my opinion. And it's

[12:28] not allowing everybody to have a horse in the township, you know.

[12:33] » Yeah, I agree. main thing is is that we're back in compliance, but we put a

[12:39] lot of thought into, you know, it being as fair to all of the

[12:46] the residents of the community and and also fair in both ways, not having too

[12:52] many animals and and you know, not overregulating. So, um, any additional

[12:59] comments from the board before we take a, uh, take a motion to approve?

[13:10] I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second that.

[13:15] Wait, do we need to do both? I'm sorry. Uh, we'll make a a proposal to um or a

[13:23] motion to >> for each one.

[13:24] » Yeah, for each one. So, proposal one. Um,

[13:30] » I don't think that you actually have to vote on both of them.

[13:32] » Oh, okay. >> You just have to one or the other.

[13:39] » So, if you decide to take the second proposal, you can

[13:45] on that one >> because the second includes the need

[13:48] language to fix the first one. >> So, the second two proceeds.

[13:52] » I didn't catch that. Okay.

[13:56] » Well, we could just make a motion to approve both text amendments.

[14:00] » No, it's proposal one or proposal two. Proposal two is ultimately

[14:05] » what cleans everything up. >> Gotcha.

[14:08] » Okay. So, um All right. Let's strike that.

[14:11] » Start that over again. >> Yeah.

[14:15] » Yeah. Yeah. It's uh great leadership here.

[14:18] » Okay. I will make a motion to um approve proposal two on the text amendments and

[14:25] I'll second that.

[14:32] » Mr. Zel, >> yes.

[14:34] » Mr. King, >> yes.

[14:36] » Mr. Pat, >> yes.

[14:37] » Mr. >> Yes.

[14:39] » All right. Motion passes. Uh so now we have a second text

[14:45] amendment. It looks like article 19 uh definitions in section 1900.

[14:52] » Mr. Chairman, that actually

[14:57] we probably should have maybe worded these a little bit. Um but the

[15:02] definitions are included at the end of the uh second.

[15:08] » It's the same. >> Okay. It is the same. Okay. Well, that's

[15:12] uh you know, strike two for me tonight. So I guess

[15:16] » I think pretty >> so we do not need to enter put this

[15:20] together for us. >> Yeah. Well,

[15:23] yeah. There are two items there in different

[15:28] sections. Um, but let the record be known that we have already voted on both

[15:34] of those article text amendments in article 8 and 19 as under one uh

[15:42] amendment in the in the second proposal. [snorts]

[15:49] Okay. Do we have anything else for the good of the order?

[15:56] No. Well, nothing else. Let's uh >> no meeting next month.

[16:00] » And no meeting next month. Okay. >> I'll make a motion to adjurnn.

[16:04] » I'll second. >> Okay.

[16:08] » Mr.

[16:13] » Yes. >> Yes.

[16:15] » M. >> Yes.

[16:17] » All right. Meeting is adjourned.

Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting - 09 Sep 2026

Transcript